Bora the Polar Bear

Origin

Bora was born in Vienna Zoo on November 20, 1986 and was raised by her mother. As a two-year-old, she left for Dvůr Králové Zoo in Czechia, and when that zoo decided not to keep polar bears any more, Bora moved house again, this time to Prague, where she arrived on September 10, 1997.
At that time, Prague Zoo already had two polar bears: a male named Alík and his daughter Pú (Czech for Winnie the Pooh). At first, these two did not want to accept the newcomer, but then the wheel of fortune turned and the two females formed a unified “Anti-Alík” league. They often refused to let him come home to eat; once they did not want to let him climb out of the pool. Still, things calmed down in a couple of months; and when Pú left for Riga in May 2001, Alík and Bora got together to form a harmonious couple.

Temperament
Bora is a very calm – even phlegmatic – and laid-back she-bear. She is not even unpredictably dangerous towards people; on the other hand, though, she does know how to get her way and does know how to show her displeasure (for instance, with the presence of a vet) by growling or by a cautionary swipe of her paw. She has only shown significant agitation shortly before each delivery, when she was very wary and suspicious – like all pregnant polar bear females.

Bora has a very low tolerance for noise and insufficiently familiar faces. That is why her first two deliveries in Prague Zoo were unsuccessful. Before her third delivery, her keepers took a timely and thorough series of measures. They lined the future delivery room with bales of hay, turned off the light and adopted a strict regime that limited access only to one permanent keeper and no one else. The strategy paid off: Bora gave birth on December 2, 2003 and started to take care of the cub. Extremely gradually and cautiously, her keepers started again to habituate Bora to their presence, and three long months later, they were rewarded with the sight of a healthy and chipper bear cub. Although the cub was initially christened Albert, a boy’s name, it turned out later that he was actually a she, so the keepers rechristened her Berta. She is still in Prague Zoo and still living with her mother. Only instead of her father, Alík, who passed away in 2005 at the venerable age of almost 27 years, they are kept company by a rascal of the name of Tom, who arrived from Brno in 2009.

Bora is most partial to fish oil, which she considers the greatest of delicacies and of which she could put away an unlimited amount, it seems. Bora is happiest when she is at home; she has no desire to show off nor does she take any particular pleasure in swimming. However, when Tom, who was then a cub a little shy of two years old, arrived at the zoo, it was as if Bora were young again. Both females started to frolic with him, both on dry land and in the water. For although Bora is a lady of a certain age, she often likes to let her fur down – and then she capers and cavorts to the point of exhaustion.